Chemicals journalist Will Beacham comments on chemical industry news and takes a close look at Central and Eastern Europe and further east.

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Saudi's target Turkey for agrobusiness ventures

A company from resource-scarce Saudi-Arabia is to invest arpund $3bn in agriculture in Turkey. With their fast-growing populations and inability to grow enough to feed them, Middle East countries are looking all over Africa, Asia and Russia for this kind of investment.

The blog wonders what the impact will be on demand for chemical fertilisers and agrochemicals? Presumably very positive since we're talking large-scale agri-business here on an industrial scale.

According to All About Feed, "private Saudi firm Planet Food World (PFWC) will invest over the next five years to export food products to the Gulf region, the head of its Turkish unit said.

PFWC wants to build 20,000 industrial farms over the next five years, Mete Mutluoglu told Reuters.

Each farm is seen at 10,000 square metres and will raise vegetables and fruits as well as having fish, poultry, sheep and cattle-raising facilities. PFWC’s total land usage in Turkey is seen at 200sqkm.

At first instance most exports will go the Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula, but the company would also like to export to Russia and Europe in the future.

Turnover in the first five years from the activities may be in the range of $20bn for the agricultural goods. This could go even higher when additional planned food and animal-processing plants are functioning.

Saudi Arabian firms have been looking abroad to grow food for the country and Gulf region. PFWC also has a project in Ethiopia, while others are looking at Tanzania and Sudan."